The Informer: All the latest from Crayford Greyhound Track
Published: 08:29, 16 October 2013
The “Crossfield” prefix is well known at the track and most greyhounds carrying this name are usually associated with trainer Julie Luckhurst.
Her latest recruit Crossfield Lane lived up to the level of expectation which comes with these dogs when winning in just his second career race here in impressive style on Saturday night.
It was a paw-perfect performance as the youngster led away from the traps recording a good sectional time of 3.68 seconds on his way to a win in grade A5 by no less than three lengths.
The August 2011 son of the famous double Derby winner Westmead Hawk looks like now progressing further given that he had previously registered trial times here of 24.00 and 24.01 seconds.
The win time here was 24.03 which clearly shows how consistent the dog is albeit in these early stages. One for the notebook and he looks like the type to win in a grade higher over the next couple of races and would be a good value bet.
It was a good weekend for the Luckhurst kennel as Julie also saw her pair Burgess Lad and Burgess Larry winning on the same cards at odds of 5-1 and 9-2 respectively.
Burgess Lad always runs against the best whether they be other Crayford trained dogs or visiting greyhounds in Open races but he is no stranger to winning having notched up 14 wins with eight second-place finishes from 43 races.
Since September 2012 he has competed in 25 top grade S1 races and 12 Open races, all over 540metres and has beaten the best in that time. He is a dangerous dog to leave out of your calculations.
While Burgess Larry does not win as often as Burgess Lad, he does have a tendency to win at good odds which is a reflection of the fact that he is probably just a little short of Lad’s class. Nonetheless, when he is on song, you will be repaid at odds of around the 4-1 to 5-1 mark as was the case at the weekend.
The dog is equally effective over both 380m and 540m and I always prefer him when in trap six as opposed to trap five as he seems to pick up the hare much quicker from the widest trap.
Arguably he is probably better suited to the shorter distance as he can be caught off of the last bend over 540m. The pair will certainly repay your support over any period of time.
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Luke Cawdell